Mom’s photo of her ‘trashed’ back seat has the internet divided

Mom’s photo of her ‘trashed’ back seat has the internet divided

One thing most parents struggle with after they have kids is trying to save the inside of their cars from total destruction. Try as they might to keep things clean with a baby on board, it’s hard to stop the avalanche of board books, Goldfish crackers, and random Lego bricks. Australian mom of three Laura Mazza knows all too well what that’s like, and she recently shared a photo of the inside of her dirty car on Facebook, hoping for a little commiseration from other moms and dads. Instead, her post has brought out the mom-shamers and sparked a heated debate about how much of a mess is too much.

“To all my mamas with the trashed cars, full of crumbs, toys, spilled yoghurt and broken dreams … oh and a moth, I salute you,” Mazza writes in the post on her Facebook page. “To all the soon to be mamas or future mamas who say they won’t let their kids eat in their car when they’re a parent, I was once you. Good luck with that!”

The post includes a photo that shows the floor of Mazza’s back seat completely covered in toys, shoes and other random items, as well as two car seats smeared with unidentifiable stains.

So far, more than 2,200 people have left comments on the post, and many of them have taken Mazza to task for letting her car get so out of control. 

“Hell no,” one commenter writes. “When the kids in my family eat in my car, I clean it up. No need for it to get dirty. It’s not always spotless, but it’s not dirty.”

Another person adds, “Sorry, but there’s messy, and then there is gross. Those seats covers of the baby car seats are a disgrace.”

Others are simply leaving gagging or barfing emojis in the comments. 

There are enough judgy responses that Mazza has added an update to her original post that reads: “Edit: Perfect parents need not comment. Your colleagues are already here.”

Luckily, not everyone believes Mazza’s car should be a source of guilt. Plenty of parents also weighed in to say their car looks just like hers — or that their car is even worse. 

“The only reason I can tell this isn’t a picture of my car is that I only have one car seat in mine,” one parent jokes in the comments. “Otherwise I’d be freaking out about being stalked.”

Another person jokingly says they think their giant car mess might come in handy someday. 

“During the forthcoming zombie apocalypse, I shall be safe in the knowledge that my family and I can lock ourselves in my car and survive for a month,” they write. “We shall be fully self sufficient, surviving on the fully evolved ecosystem that we have cultivated within said vehicle.”

And one parent says they don’t actually know anyone who has a cleaner car than Mazza’s. 

“I have never met a parent of young children with a clean car,” they write. “I’m CONVINCED the moment you become a parent crumbs automatically begin to appear in your back seat before you even leave the hospital with your firstborn. As the child progresses in age, so does the size and shape of the crumbs.”

Crumb-coated floor mats might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but this is another one of those parenting issues that ultimately comes down to personal preference. Parents who have more than one child, whose kids spend a lot of time in the car or who have full-time jobs simply may not have the free time to devote to making their cars spotless every single day. Others just might not see it as a priority.

In any car used to transport kids, it’s important that the car seats are installed correctly. It’s important that the person behind the wheel isn’t distracted while driving. It’s also a good idea to take time to remove random toys and books regularly because the National Auto Collision Centers warns that loose objects can potentially become projectiles in a crash. But fingerprints on the seat covers? Loose Cheerios in the cup holders? Those are the kinds of things that might be more acceptable to some parents than others, and no one deserves to be judged for that.

As one mom writes on Mazza’s post, “We are all parents. We all choose what’s most important to do in each day. For me, having a spotless house and car are somewhere on the list after school stuff, hospital stuff, keeping my sanity stuff, and for me, if that means quite often both my house and car look like bombs have gone off, so be it … Parents just do your best, even if your best is someone else’s worst.”


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